A systematic review of the concept of self-regulation in infants between 0 and 36 months in Latin America

Abstract

The data set is the product of an article search based on the PRISMA protocol for a systematic review of scientific articles on self-regulation in children aged 0 to 36 months in Latin America. The search for articles focusing on studies embracing SR development from 2000 to 2023. This criterion is based on the significant increment in the volume of psychology and developmental cognitive neuroscience publications over the past twenty years, connected to advancements in techniques and methodologies within both fields and new theoretical viewpoints aimed at comprehensively studying cognition and emotion. Search parameters were set considering keywords related to SR processes. The present review was designed based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009; Shamseer et al., 2015). In order to guarantee publicity, transparency, and replicability, the systematic review, methods, and search materials were registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) platform. Search strategy, data sources, and extraction: The search strategy was based on advanced search engines, search parameters, and the keywords self-regulation, child development, and infant development. The selected search terms were those we considered most appropriate to the review's objectives: broad concepts were chosen that allowed us to cover a large sample, which would then have to be carefully screened. It is worth clarifying that other keywords could have been used, for example using only "child" or "infant" without "development." However, in the testing before selecting keywords for the search, we observed that these search terms gave very unfocused results, without any link to the concept of SR of the developmental sciences. For example, SR of advertising aimed at children, SR in infant feeding, SR of disciplinary rules in school contexts, or SR of markets associated with children. Including the term "development" allowed us to balance the breadth of the search with focusing on the specific concept of SR linked to the developmental sciences. Although several terms are associated with SR (i.e., executive functions, temperament, reactivity), the lack of recursivity between the different theoretical frameworks from which these terms come is an obstacle to identifying relevant literature. The selection criteria (inclusion/exclusion) were adjusted to the proposed objectives: studies with Latin American samples from 0 to 36 months. Review papers, perspectives, and empirical studies published in Spanish, Portuguese, and English were included. Considering that the search was carried out in three different languages, the keywords were appropriately translated and adapted to the resources of each search engine (e.g., filters and boolean operators). The following databases were consulted searching for articles published in journals from the humanities, education, health, and social sciences: Education full text; Psychology and Behavioral Collection; PubMed; Scielo and Redalyc, using the following search interfaces: EBSCO, PubMed, Scielo, and Google Scholar. The choice of the databases and interfaces was based on the following criteria. PubMed is one of the most recognized databases globally in health studies that include infant development, where this search was framed. EBSCO provides globally recognized databases in education and psychology that complement PubMed, which is more focused on the health area. Scielo and Redalyc are databases specialized in publications from the Latin American and Caribbean context, with which we intend to cover journals that may not be indexed in non-specialized databases in the region. The search strategy for each interface and database is outlined below according to the resources of each one: (1) EBSCO (Education full text+Psychology and Behavioral Science Collection): "Self-regulation" AND ("child development" OR "infant development" OR "toddler development"). Filters: published between the year 2000-2023; (2) PubMed: "Self-regulation" AND "development". (Filters: published between 2000-2023/ age: Newborn: birth-1 month, Infant: birth-23 months, Infant: 1-23 months, Preschool Child: 2-5 years/ language English, Spanish, Portuguese); (3) Scielo: "Self-regulation" AND ("child development" OR "infant development"); "Autorregulación" AND "desarrollo infantil"; "Auto-regulação" AND "desenvolvimento infantil" (Filters: published between the year 2000-2023) ; (4) Redalyc (through indexing in Google scholar): "Self-regulation" AND ("child development" OR "infant development"); "Autorregulación" AND "desarrollo infantil"; "Auto-regulação" AND "desenvolvimento infantil" (Filters: published between the year 2000-2023).